Today, when an organization decides to migrate their processing workload to a cloud infrastructure or create a new application in the cloud they need to evaluate which cloud provider can best meet their requirements. In general, organizations consider their current workload technical specifications, e.g., disk and central processing unit (CPU) consumption and budget, and try to identify cloud offerings that meet their needs.
However, in most cases, organizations do not have all information that is needed to reach an effective decision regarding which cloud provider and service model best fits current and future needs. Furthermore, the decision-making process can be complex, as there are several options (e.g., Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service), each one with different pricing models and features.
Moreover, choosing the best cloud provider goes beyond technical environment specifications and budget. Just as important is providing a solution to connect with the organization's business needs and strategy. Due to: (1) the number of cloud providers; (2) different types of cloud deployment and service models; (3) the benefits that each one can provide; and (4) specific business requirements that each customer may have, it becomes practically impossible to identify the best solution without professional assistance. Currently, there exists no mechanism to perform such a comprehensive evaluation in an automated manner by relying solely on data provided by the cloud providers.